Improvement in the manufacture of ice and refrigerating machines



r 2 Sheets -Sheet S. B. MARTIN 8L JOHN M. BEATH. improvement in theManufacture of Ice .and Refrigerating Machine Patented May 28,1872.

. y lnventors I ol 2 Sheets--Shect 2. S. B. MARTlN & JOHN MQBEATH.

Improvement in the Manufacture of Ice and Refrigerating Machine.

No.127,180. Patented May 28,4872;

0 o O 0 O O B l o 0 O o o b] l D i) i d 0 G i i D) g @i a. G ,.L I) 0((i 1 O 2 m Fhum-umumAPH/c 00. h. x (Issue/v: s PROCESS) UNITED STATESSAMUEL BL MARTIN AND JOHN M. BEATH, OF SAN FRANCISCO, GAL.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ICE AND REFRIGERATING MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 127,180, dated May 28,1872.

SPECIFICATION. To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, SAMUEL B. MARTIN and JOHN M. BEATH, of the city andin the county of San Francisco and State of California, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Ice-Making and RefrigeratingMachines; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear,and exact description of the same, reference being had to theaccompanying drawing and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

Our invention relates to that class of machines in which cold iscontinually produced by the vaporization, liquefaction, and returns forcontinuous use of a volatile fluid, acting directly on the substance tobe frozen, without the intervention of anon-congealable liquid. Itconsists of three parts or divisions, common to all such machines,namely, congealer, compressing-pump, and condenser.

' As the most important part of our invention relates to the congealer,we will first briefly refer to the principle on which this part of ourinvention is based, in order that we may better show wherein ourinvention differs from all others before known or used.

It will be apprehended by those who are skilled in the arts to which ourinvention belongs that the withdrawal of heat from water in quantitysufficient to produce ice in bulk, by the vaporization of avolatileliquid contiguous to it, involves either a rapid transmission ofheat from the water to the liquid, or the action must be spread over alarge surface.

As ice is a slow conductor of heat, and as the heat withdrawn has topass through the ice already formed, a rapid freezing of ice of anyconsiderable thickness is impracticable, and can only be partially urgedby vaporizing the liquid at extreme low temperature and, consequently,low pressure, which can only be accomplished by an unwarrantableexpenditure of power. Therefore, a uniform distri-- bution of bothliquid and water over a large surface is a condition indispensable tothe productlon of ice with economy, and we have found its consequentslow formation is essential in producing it in solid and transparentform from undistilled water.

Heretofore, the method of freezing by di3 rect contact has been by meansof spraying the liquid within the freezing surfaoe by covering the innersurface of the freezing-vessel with ahsorbents of the liquid, or bymeans of expansion-chambers, and more recently by means of hollow slabsor long and narrow chambers holding a'specific charge of liquid,sufficient, by its vaporization, to give a stated result or freeze agiven quantity of ice on the surface of the containing-vessel; but thevanature of their construction, practically limv ited in size, sothatrin a manufactory of any considerable extent they require to beduplicated. With the view oft avoiding these and other objectionableconditions, we have been engaged in a long series of :experiments, fromwhich we have discovered that when volatile liquids are vaporized intheir passage through long chambers or pipes of small sectional area,the liquid particles are carried along by the moving vapor withoutreference to grade, and

may be made to produce 'nearly a uniform freezing temperature throughouttheir length by simply adjusting the pressure in said pipes so that allthe liquid particles are vaporized by the time they reach the outlet.

Referring to the drawing, Figure 1 is a perspective View. Fig. 2 is alongitudinal section. Fig. 3 shows a transverse section of thedistribu'ter. Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are details of parts of ourmachine.

Our congealer, constructed on this principle, consists of verticalmetallic plates, traversed longitudinally by parallel channels, in whichthe volatile liquid flows as it expands into vapor or gas, therebyforming ice on either surface. We make these plates of the depthrequired for our sheets of ice, and of the length required for ourchannels. We find this meth' 0d of construction preferable to thatof'return-- ing the same channels in a single plate, as in the latterplan the sheets of ice are thin at the lower edge, by reason of thediminution of the freezing-power near'the outlet.

PATENT OFFICE.

, In our described method of continuing separate channels through thelength of the plate all the thin ice is at or near the outlet end, and

may be allowed to remain until of the proper thickness. Our aim is toconstruct these freezing-plates so as to expose the greatest practicableamount of surface with a given number of channels and weight of metal,and to avoid joints as far as practicable.

We have found that the distance between the channels may be as much asfour (4) inches without diminishing the effect when the freezing goes onat the proper rate. In view of these conditions we prefer to form ourchannels of pipes, composed of lead, tin, and antithickness of ice oneach surface, and also a space in the center for the escape of air. Bythis means we are enabled to make clear and solid ice without anyprevious preparation of the water; whereas if all the water between thesurfaces is frozen the central portion is invariably opaque and porous.As the gasified liquid is still of low temperature, and contains someliquid particles after leaving the congealer, we further utilize it bycontinuing the congealer-pipes through the trough G, and passing thewater to be used in the succeeding charge through this trough in contactwith the pipes and in an opposite direction. The trough G, thereceptacle for holding or storing the water, and the con gealer-tank A,we cover with non-conducting material, or place them in a building whichis itself made non-conducting.

In order that the freezing action may be equal in each of the plates, ifmore than one is used, and that it may be equal from the top to thebottom of each of the plates, it is necessary that each of the channelsor pipes areceive the same quantity of liquid. Besides, any considerableexcess of liquid in any one pipe will be carried into the pump, andthere vaporized and removed by it without deriving any benefit from itsvaporization.

We have found the usual means of distribution entirely inadequate toproduce the desired result, and have, therefore, invented a device forthis purpose, which we call the distributer D. It is composed of twohemispheres of castiron, bolted together by the flanges. The lowerhalf-sphere is equally divided into compartments, as shown at Fig. 3,into the bottom of each one of which is inserted one of the pipes acomposing the con gealer. In the'center of this is avertical shaft, B,the upper part of which is.hollow, as is also the arm 0 extending fromit; Into the end of this shaft the liquid is brought by the pipe K.

The constant revolution of this arm deposits an equal quantity of liquidin each of the compartments or funnels, which, by its weight. sinks intothe pipe connected with it, and thereby secures an exactly equaldivision of the liquid to each of the pipes, the number of compartmentsbeing equal to the whole number of pipes in the congealer. This arm maybe moved by the incoming liquid, subject to the high pressure of thecondenser, by constructing it in the form of a reaction or Barker wheel;but we prefer moving it more slowly by the shaft passing through astuffing-box below, and driving it by means of a pulley.

In ice-machines heretofore in use the flow of liquid to the con gealerhas only been governed by the quantity of liquid in the receiverattached to the condenser. 1 r

In our machine the flow of liquid to the congealer is governed by thequantity of liquid in the congealer itself. It will be seen that anyexcess of liquid in the pipes will be immediately carried on until itreaches the watercooler 0, when it will be vaporized by the highertemperature of the watersurroundin g these pipes, which will increasethe pressure, and through this increase of pressure the supply ischecked by the mercury-gauge 0. This consists of an inverted siphon,with enlargements f and g in each leg, as shown in Fig. 1. Thedifference of level of these enlarged portions is made equal to theheight of a column of mercury supported by the average pressure in thecon gealer. The enlarged portion G contains a float, connected with thelever j by the rod 70. The other end of the lever is connected with ahollow cylindrical valve i, Fig. 8, so that increase of pressure in thepipes of the congealer, acting through the tube upon the mercury in thecylinder f, depresses it and raises the float, which closes the valveand checks the flow. A decrease of pressure in like manner increases theflow. In this manner we regulate the intensity of the freezing actionthroughout the congealer.

Economy of power in working the compressing-pump requires the condenserto be maintained at the lowest temperature practicable. This hasheretofore been accomplished by means of a running stream of water oftwentyfive to thirty times the quantity actually made into ice. Thislarge volume of water is often difficult to obtain, and is in almost allcases obtained at considerable expense.

We substitute in the place of this stream of water atmospheric air, onlyusing water for the purpose of facilitating the transfer of heat fromthe pipes to the air, the quantity actually consumed being only thesmall amountconveyed away by the air in the form of vapor.

- Our condenser is composed of a series of pipes, G, connected with theeduction-pipe H,- and descending spirally as they approach the center,and then, terminate in the hollow cast iron cylindrical ring 1, whichforms a receiver for the condensed liquid. These pipes and the receiverare inclosed in a cylindrical casing, L, with openings M around thebottom for the admission of air. In the center of the bottom of thiscasing, which is slightly concave,

is stepped a vertical hollow shaft, 0, with four arms, P, and carrying apropeller-wheel, Q, at

the upper end. This shaft is revolved with sutficient velocity to forcethe water with which it is charged out of the hollow arm, which descendsin the form of spray over the coils of pipe G, while the propeller Qdraws the air in through the side openings M, and forces it in a gentlecurrent out at the contracted top of the casing. The water falling onthe floor of the condenser runs to the center and is again drawn intotheishaft, and so continuously circulates,

the water serving as a medium through which the heat evolved by thecondensing gas is transferred to the air, through which it is constantlypassing as it'falls. The upright shaft 0 contains a check-valve at itsfoot, and is charged with water through the ends of the arms P beforeputting it in operation.

-We fill this receiver about two-thirds full of liquefied gas.

The pump and other machinery being put in operation, a cock in the pipeK is opened, allowing the liquid to pass from the receiver to thedistributerD; from thence tothe con gealer, V

where it is converted into vapor by the heat withdrawn from the waterwith which the congealer is filled; thence it passes through the troughG to the pump E, where it is forced into thev condenser through theeduction-pipe H.' In the pipes ofthe condenser it is liquefied, runsdown the inclined pipes to the receiver I, from which it is againreturned to the congealer, and so on continuously. When the ice isformed on the plates of the con gealer of the required thickness it isdetached by opening a cock, 'r,and allowing gasfrom the condenser toflow into the congealer. We divide these sheets of ice into blocks ofsuitable size for handling by flattened sheet-iron tubes m, two of whichare shown. These are closed at the bottom, and heldin their place beforethe ice is formed by connecting them in pairs by the strap a, and arepressed down, one on each side of the freezing-plate.

After the ice is formed these flattened tubes are filled withwaterotiordinarytemperature,

than half, the thickness-of the sheets of ice, as

the superior conducting properties of the tube would cause the ice tofreeze thicker there than elsewhere.

After the ice is detached from the freezin plates, a bar of ironinserted into the opening made by the tube easily cracks the remainingportion of ice, when we float the blocks to one end of the tank, andwith suitable tongs and tackle hoist them out. The new charge of wateris pumped or run in as the ice is being removed.

In our apparatus we are enabled to use any volatile fluid whose tensionof vapor amounts to a few inches of mercury at the freezing point ofwater; but economy in motive power and cost of machinery require us touse such fluid as will absorb the greatest amount of heat in beingconverted into vapor or gas of given volume and tension without havingto resort to extreme low pressures to vaporize, or extreme highpressuresto liquefy, it.

Having selected our fluid, we ascertain from standard authority on thesubject its latent heat, thespecific heat of its vapor; also the tensionand volume of its vapor at different temperatures; from which we areenabled to calculate the amount of cold produced by the vaporization ofa given quantity of the liquid, the pressure required to condense it,and the volume of air required to remove the heat evolved by itscondensation, usually allowing the air to be raised in temperature threeor four degrees, and the water which goes with it in the form of vaporto absorb and carry about one-fourth the whole amount of heat to beremoved.

From the above data we are enabled, also, to calculate the volume ofvapor or gasto be removed from our congealer by the compressin gpump,and the power required to work it. In the congealer the liquid uniformlyincreases in volume as .it expands into vapor and approaches the pump,and also diminishes in volume as it recedes from the pumpand liquefiiesin the condenser; therefore the aggregate sectional area of the pipes ineither congealer or condenser should be sufficient to convey the gas orvapor at a velocity not exceeding sixteen (16) feet per second at anypoint in its course. r v

We also find it necessary, in order to secure economy in motive powerand make solid andtransparent ice of convenient thickness, to make thewhole freezing-surface of our con gealer of sufficient extent to makethe required quantity of ice when the congelation goes on at a rate notexceeding one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness per hour; and, with thesame object of economy in view, we make the whole superficial surface ofpipe in our condenser equal to one square foot of surface for everypound of ice or equivalent refrigeration produced per hour.

In our congealer which we have described, we freeze homogeneous,transparent, and solid sheets of ice of convenient thickness, say,

about sizr inches. The parallel grooves formed in the surface of thesheets of ice are an advantage, as they serve as guides in subdividingthem.

For machines of large size, which may be made of the capacity of tentons per hour, if required, we make usually each freezing-plate severalhundred feet in length, using two or three sizes of pipe in eachchannel, placing the largest size at the outlet.

As short channels are objectionable on account of the difficulty ofequalizing the temperature in them, we prefer in constructing smallmachines to make the plates of the length of the containing-tank, andobtain the required length of channels by returning the pipes in thesame plate, as is shown in Fig. 6.

In case we are required to form ice of given thicknessin less time thancan be done by the described form of plates, we make our plates withplane surfaces and with the channels closer together, filling theintervening space between the pipes with bar or cast iron, rolled orcast to fit the pipe and protect it, as shown in the cross-section, Fig.7; or the composition metal pipes themselves may be drawn of rectangularshape on the outside, so as to be laid one upon another, and thus formthe required plane surface in this form of our congealer'.

We make the distance between the plates, or the distance between thefolds of the plates, equal to the required thickness of the sheets ofice, and freeze the intervening water solid. The plane surface of theplates permits the ice to be withdrawn when detached from the plates.

When we use our apparatus for refrigerating rooms for curing meats andfor other like purposes, we extend our channeled plates in which thevolatile fluid is vaporized longitudinally through the center of theroom, returnin g the pipes on themselves, as shown in Fig. 6, so as toplace them all in the same vertical plane.

The width of room refrigerated by a single plate may be equal to aboutthree or four times its height; a descending current of cold air in thevicinity of the plate is replaced by warmer air from the ceiling, bywhich means a constant circulation is maintained, and anearly-uniform-low temperature secured throughout the'room.

Having thus described our invention, We do not claim as newthe describedmethod of detaching theice from the congealer-plates, as

manner as to present proper surfaces for the formation of the ice, asdescribed.

3. The combination of a system of independent pipes and a distributerfor supplying the pipes equally with fluid, as described.

4. The distributer D,.constructed specifically as described, for thepurpose set forth.

5. The combination of the plates B having semi-tubular depressions withthe pipes, as described.

6. The device for cooling the condensingpipes, constructed substantiallyas described, for the purpose set forth.

7. The means employed for regulating the flow of the liquid by thepressure of the vapor, substantially as described.

8. The combination of the mercury-gauge provided with a float, theintermediate con nectin g devices, and the valve i, substantially asdescribed.

9. A hollow tube or tubes adapted to be connected to the freezing-platesfor the purpose of dividing the, sheets of ice, the same being filledwith water. of ordinary temperature when it is desired to remove theice, substantially as described.

10. The flattened tubes m, constructed specifically as described.

11. The combination of the congealer, the trough G, and the system ofpipes, the latter being carried through the trough to cool the water forthe congealing-chamber, substantially as described' In witness whereofwe have hereunto set our hands.

SAML. B. MARTIN. J. M. BEATH. vWitnesses:

WILLIAM D. ENGLISH, Gno. H. STRONG.

